DLTK's Maritime Road Trip
Day 11: Moncton to St. Andrews
We had enjoyed our 2-day stop in Moncton, and marveled at the truly bilingual nature of the city, but it was time to pack up and head to our next stop – St. Andrews by the sea.
Mom was eager to get to Kingsbrae Gardens (one of the top 10 gardens in Canada) in St. Andrews so we left the hotel first thing in the morning. We picked up breakfast at Tim Horton’s to eat in the truck on the way.
It was a long drive, but we did well – arriving around lunchtime after enjoying the scenery from the truck. New Brunswick is surprisingly different form Nova Scotia – lots of mixed forest and rolling farmland. We all enjoyed seeing the spotted dairy cows grazing in the fields.
Kingsbrae Gardens in St. Andrews, NB
We didn’t eat lunch right away, but instead decided to spend some time in the garden. The girls were given a scavenger hunt to complete and turn in for a prize. Kaitlyn especially enjoyed getting everyone to help her find everything from butterfly shaped water sprinklers to giant windmills. We even had to count how many ducks were in a pond and wind our way through a labyrinth to help her complete her tasks.
The girls both commented that the garden was a lot more family friendly than some of the others they had visited – I’ll have to remember that if DLTK’s ever builds a garden *grin*.
Mom and dad enjoyed snapping photos and reading the signs that identified the various plants – though mom was disappointed to find out that most of her 451 photos were blurry * sob*- more practice with the new micro lens is required.
We finished the scavenger hunt and headed to the restaurant to collect our prize and eat lunch. Lunch was tasty but the prize was even better, freezy pops were perfect on a hot, humid day!
While in the garden we realized that our bed and breakfast was right next door. “Richard” half butler half bouncer greeted us at the door of the fancy establishment and showed us to our carriage house room. It was beautiful! And had a lovely deck with the view of their gardens.
Kingsbrae Arms, St. Andrews, NB
Tasha and Kaitlyn watched a movie in the room while mom and dad enjoyed the four-course supper in the main building. We mingled with the fancy folks and tried our best just to be ourselves. I think that we did ok- and the meal was scrumptious so well worth the effort.
Tasha, in the meantime, kicked out the housekeeping staff that came to turn down the beds and leave the chocolates. No strangers while she’s on duty!
We fell fast asleep only to be startled awake at midnight by extremely loud music. We staggered around our cottage for a while before finding the offending stereo and turning it off. We surmise the cause of the kerfuffle was housekeeping accidentally punching a few buttons (or ghosts!)
DLTK's Maritimes Road Trip Index